1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing a rubber extruded article in which the main body of the article is made of EPDM. In particular, it relates to a process for producing a rubber extruded article which is suitable for making cloth-like surfaces of internal automotive rubber products such as weather strip, trim and the like.
A list of the abbreviations of polymers and plasticizers used in the present specification is shown below.
NBR--nitrile-butadiene rubber.
EPDM--ethylene-propylene rubber (sulfurvulcanizable type).
SBR--styrene-butadiene rubber.
2. Description of Related Art
An explanation is given below using the example of automobile door weather strips as rubber extruded articles, but in the present specification, the word "extruded articles" refers not only to automobile door weather strips.
Conventionally, many extruded articles such as weather strips are made of EPDM. EPDM shows good weather resistance, ozone resistance, heat resistance, etc.
Because of the recent growing demand for improvement in the decorative design of automobiles, it is often desirable that the exposed surface of a weather strip have the same cloth-like surface as that of the interior trim.
There is a conventional method of attaching cloth to the surface to be decorated (see Japanese Utility Model Registration Unexamined Publication No. 62-88655). The above method, however, is disadvantageous for the following reasons. In order to make a surface of a rubber extruded article, the surface of the article after vulcanization must be subjected to a large number of steps such as buffing, defatting, primer coating, coating with an adhesive, attachment of cloth, curing of the adhesive, etc. Therefore, the productivity is not satisfactory.
In view of such conditions, the present invention is intended to provide a high-productivity process for producing a rubber extruded article with a cloth-like surface by attaching cloth to the surface of a rubber substrate made of EPDM.